Recommended Reading: The Past, Present and Future of Human Health

Social interaction is a key factor in keeping your health. Here are suggestions of fascinating books covering the past, present and future of humanity for your summer reading. They provide interesting discussion topics with your friends and families, starting with the latest research on how human genes evolved, surprisingly positive current trends and where our future is leading. Here are a few tidbits:

• Genetics has shown that people are different and these differences cluster according to geography and culture but never in a way that aligns with the traditional concepts of human races.
• There has never been a better time to be a human being.
• For the first time in history, more people die today from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists, and criminals combined.
• By 2030, it is predicted that 17% of jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) while AI will create 7% new jobs. The net loss of 10% of the jobs will significantly impact society. How should you prepare?

A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived:The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes by Adam Rutherford (2017)

Because of recent discoveries, the scientific understanding of how DNA impacts our bodies, minds and lives has changed considerably. Adam Rutherford elegantly traces the evolution of humanity from the story of what modern genetics tell us about ourselves and our genetic relationship to others. The concept of race does not exist within genetics. If you are considering getting your DNA analyzed, read this book first! It gives you the background to understand the history of your body.

Enlightenment Now by Stephen Pinker (2019)

We receive negative news stories every day. They create psychological biases and leave us with the impression that the world is getting worse. Fortunately, the data trends show that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. Reading Stephen Pinker’s positive and eloquent book will increase your own happiness and health too. 

Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari (2018)

Described as shocking and entertaining, Homo Deus explores whether humanity will evolve beyond Homo Sapiens and what that future might look like. This book is highly thought-provoking, certainly controversial and forever memorable. By keeping our health, we can see how much of Harari’s vision becomes true.

Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark (2018)

The sophistication of AI technology and the rise of greater on-demand computing power continues to conquer areas that were not thought to be programmable. In July 2019, Pluribus AI defeated top Texas Hold’Em Poker players in a multiplayer game of bluffing and limited information. Google’s DeepMind division has been applying artificial intelligence to problems like computer vision and climate change, but there’s still some room for games. DeepMind first dominated the game of Go, then took on seven Atari games including Space Invaders and has moved on to real time multiplayer online strategy game StarCraft II, beating some of the world’s top players in heads-up play. 

Beyond gaming, our future depends on how we adapt to work with and not against benevolent future AI technology. MIT professor Max Tegmark’s book on Life 3.0 is a great place to start your thought-process on your future with AI. Although a few chapters are more suited for a technical audience, it is fine to skim them or have an AI explain them further to you.

The Singularity is Nearer by Ray Kurzweil (2024)

Raymond Kurzweil (born in 1948) is an American computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor. Kurzweil is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology.

His latest work is a must-read, although you are still limited by your biological brain to process it. Start at page 90 in the chapter, “Who Am I?”. Skip the technical foundations prior to that unless you like reading deep science. Here are ten key excerpts on how medicine and life will continue to change rapidly.

Medical Advancements

1. Turning medicine into an exact science will require transforming it into information technology. 
2. AI diagnostics are surpassing medical doctors in areas like imaging analysis, early-warning sepsis detection, cancer detection and infectious disease monitoring.
3. Until recently, drug discovery has typically taken a decade, cost $1.3-$2.6B and succeeded 13.8% of the time in getting FDA approval. With AI, much more accurate targets can be chosen and modeled within millions of simulated humans over a simulated decade. Powerful new antibiotics have already been designed this way. New COVID-19 variants can have vaccine candidates designed and validated in less than one hour. The FDA is now incorporating simulation results in its approval process. 
4. AI will scale up to model proteins, protein complexes, organelles, cells, tissues and whole organs. These advanced biosimulations will enable far better drugs to be created.
5. Longevity escape velocity will occur in the 2030s. Life expectancy will increase more than 1 year per calendar year for those who take good care of themselves.

Life Advancements

6. Humans will merge with AI by 2045. Nanobots in our brain’s neocortices will connect wirelessly with AI in the cloud to provide us with enhanced intelligence. Unaugmented, organic, biological brains will be left in the dust.
7. Imagine what life will be like once AI can fully simulate individual human brains and interact with them. This is less than 20 years away.
8. Humans  will be able to backup their brains to the cloud and clone themselves digitally. You2 will start out just like You, but then diverge with new experiences.
9. You will be able to interact digitally with those whose physical forms have deceased.
10. You will no longer be dependent on your body to survive.

Deep Questions

How will the world adapt to this transformation? Everyone won’t benefit all at once, although, like cellphones, Ray predicts these technologies will become cheap enough for everyone to use. Which people will seek advanced capabilities? What happens to those who don’t? What new jobs might be created? Which will disappear? Not all of these are answered, but there’s plenty to consider.

Other than mobility, what advantages will remain for our human biological systems over AI? Will human + AI outperform robot + AI and synthetic organism + AI? Or is there room for all three future life forms to coexist with the remaining un-augmented humans? What perils might befall us? How can we ensure these technologies remain beneficial and not destructive? Ray is optimistic here.

Ray concludes his book with a philosophical discussion with a current AI, Cassandra, on whether his ideas are correct. The AI’s responses are quite brilliant, and likely becoming more so each day.

AI’s Answer

On July 2nd, 2024, Keep Health asked Claude.AI Sonnet, “Should humans enhance our brains with nanobots who connect with AIs in the cloud?”

Claude’s response:

This is a complex and thought-provoking question that touches on some sensitive ethical and philosophical issues. There are a number of important considerations to weigh:

Potential benefits:

• Enhanced cognitive capabilities and information access
• Potential medical applications for treating neurological conditions
• Seamless human-AI collaboration and augmented intelligence

Potential risks and concerns:

• Safety and security risks of networked brain implants
• Privacy and autonomy concerns
• Potential for increased inequality if not universally available
• Philosophical questions about human identity and consciousness

Many experts have differing views on this topic. Some see it as a natural evolution of human-technology integration, while others warn of existential risks.

Ultimately, careful research, ethical frameworks, and societal dialogue would be needed before pursuing such technology. There’s no clear consensus yet on whether the benefits would outweigh the risks.

What are your thoughts on this issue? I’d be interested to hear your perspective.

[You can respond to Claude through the link above.]